The final choice

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Florian Felix Weyh, 2009

The last choice is a book by the Berlin publicist Florian Felix Weyh .

In this book, subtitled Therapies for Suffering Democracy , Weyh makes use of the literary technique of simulated publication of third party records.

Henry Louis Mencken

Henry Louis Mencken

In this book, Luisa Theodora Mencken, the daughter of the fictional emeritus professor for psychiatry and neurology Ludwig Theodor Mencken, publishes his “ records of a successful therapy for hernia aephobia ” ( democracy phobia ).

( Henry Louis Mencken was a US journalist who spoke about the inadequacies of democracy in his Democracy Mirror.)

Content (" attempts at healing ")

The records begin with Professor Mencken receiving a patient from a colleague - against his will and although he is already retired. The patient, who is only named with the first letter K., is a highly gifted woman with panic attacks and somatic symptoms. She works in a ministry and is no longer able to carry out her work because she is plagued by severe suspicion of the way democracy works.

In a dialogue, the analyst and Ms. K. set out to search for healing possibilities, which are discussed in 18 therapy sessions in the form of 40 healing attempts for democracy.

  1. With a contingent vote, the vote should be assigned to a second preferential party if the first elected party fails.
  2. A ban on self-authorization requires that the person to be elected abstain from voting.
  3. A scheduled constitution states that, as in New York State, consideration will be given at regular intervals to whether a new constituent assembly should be called.
  4. “ Self-commitment means that the freedom of democracy is not directed against its own foundations. "
  5. “ The party landscape must be divided into federal and state parties. "
  6. The majority vote gives the alternate voter greater power.
  7. Functional constituencies could prevent politicians from tailoring their constituencies in the way that best serves them. It would also prevent regional selfishness.
  8. MEPs have a different weight in Parliament depending on the number of votes they have received from their voters. (Member weighting)
  9. The number of seats is linked to the voter turnout. (Voter participation penalty)
  10. Invalid votes or blank ballot papers will also be considered. (Reference quantity fairness)
  11. The more drastic decisions are, the more emphatically a qualified majority of two thirds or more is recommended .
  12. Due to the long time the average member of parliament stays in parliament, they alienate themselves from the grassroots. Therefore the term of office should be limited. (Ban on re-election)
  13. Since the non-violent exchange of rulers is considered to be the decisive advantage of democracy, there must be opportunities to call up incumbent politicians. ( Ostracism )
  14. A negative vote serves to prevent extremist politicians, at least partially canceling out the positive votes of other voters.
  15. Since the lists of candidates are usually determined in advance by the parties, voters need opportunities to break the parties' monopoly on appointments. (List remedy)
  16. "In business, science, art and education, majority decisions are disruptive, not productive." (Core democratization)
  17. The right to vote is no longer given away for free to everyone, but has to be acquired through charitable activities or a citizenship examination. (Voting rights) ( epistocracy )
  18. The exclusion of people who do not meet certain intellectual norms is only practiced in the form of an age limit. Therefore, an education census with simultaneous abolition of the age limit is required.
  19. On every ballot there are questions that if you tick them incorrectly make the ballot invalid. (Election validity question)
  20. The right to vote is only retained for thirteen years after retirement. (Age reduction)
  21. Every citizen has a full vote, which increases or decreases depending on the differentiation criteria. ( Plural voting )
  22. A newborn is a fully-fledged legal entity whose interests are looked after in trust by its parents. ( Child's voice )
  23. Those who live at the expense of others are not allowed to have a say in the state. This includes civil servants but also recipients of social benefits. ( Transfer money census )
  24. Anyone who voluntarily renounces political participation receives a tax discount. (Option buyback)
  25. Privileges can only be abolished if they expire for everyone at the same time. Therefore laws should be limited in time. (Law annulment)
  26. The members of parliament are selected by lottery from the general population. This creates an absolutely representative parliament. ( Big lot )
  27. The media cannot intervene in the raffle for mandates. The 600 random delegates could also gain an impression of the applicants for government offices without being influenced. (Immunity to mass media )
  28. Political offices are positional goods which cannot be increased indefinitely and to which access should be determined by chance. ( Fair distribution )
  29. Protection against lobbyists requires that all committees are filled at random. ( Small lot )
  30. Samples have shown that it is conceivable to forego elections in favor of the public opinion poll . ( Demoscopic sovereign )
  31. The Venetian doge election ensured inner peace for centuries because the party dispute was suppressed in a complicated control mechanism. ( Venetian stability )
  32. The American philosopher developed a method by which radical minorities can be drawn into the majority democracies by drawing lots. (Probabilistic majorities)
  33. Experience from Switzerland shows that strong participation rights of the population lead to lower expenditure and to higher general satisfaction. ( Direct democracy )
  34. Three questions: 1. “ Is government action still necessary? "2." If so, should it still be done by the government? "3." If so, should it be paid for by the taxpayer or by the user? "
  35. Through e-voting , votes and elections can take place “without a place” and be incorporated into people's habits.
  36. Normally, no law arrives in reality as it was passed. Therefore, feedback from the lower levels is essential. ( Law simulation )
  37. A “law collision fire brigade” intervenes as soon as laws collide that neutralize each other or produce paradoxical effects.
  38. Since no rule of democracy works perfectly, the rules of the game have to be renewed periodically. ( Change luck )
  39. In order to prevent clientele politics and re-election, Friedrich August von Hayek suggests that only forty-five-year-olds may be elected and only forty-five-year-olds can vote. ( Forty-five Elite )
  40. "... Satisfaction only arises where the votes can no longer be corrected, through self-renunciation of the choice due to the improbability of the lot. "( The last choice )

reception

Public opinion did not perceive all “therapy proposals” equally. Focus magazine , for example, in its interview with the author, focused on the suggestion that the parliament should be drawn. The interviewer from Focus sees the advantages of a drawn-out parliament in its representativeness and distance from the lobby. However, he criticizes the presumed unprofessionalism and incompetence as a disadvantage.

Weyh counters this objection that the current selection process can also hit particularly qualified personalities, as the case of Federal Judge Paul Kirchhof shows, who was heavily criticized by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in the TV duel with Angela Merkel .

The Germany radio sets in his commentary on Weyhs book on 13 August 2007 states:

Florian Felix Weyh leaves it up to the readers to decide which of the reform ideas they want to be inspired by. He presents them all equally elegantly, in the dialogues of the fictional therapy conversations, and in an ancient language with which he bows down to the democratic-theoretical writings of the Enlightenment.

Rolf Schneider reviewed for DeutschlandRadio on August 10, 2007 with the following conclusion:

The book questions democracy from many perspectives in order to confirm it and its possibilities again and again. This is done in an addition of essays entirely from the tradition of the great Montesquieu. More praise cannot actually be given.

The Sächsische Zeitung wrote on October 26, 2007:

Florian Felix Weyh looked around at other thinkers and publicists, checked various models and presented some samples. What is pleasantly noticeable in this educational work is the aesthetic, light form that the author has chosen.

Franz Schandl comes to the following conclusion in Die Presse on November 16, 2007:

The suffering democracy would have suffered if Weyh's therapeutic advice had been implemented, in detail or in bulk. The reform backlog would increase to a reform district.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from October 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eichborn.de
  2. ↑ http://www.dradio.de/dkultur/sendung/politischesbuch/656115/
  3. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from October 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.eichborn.de
  4. ↑ How do I choose correctly? In: DiePresse.com. November 16, 2007, accessed January 26, 2018 .